BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) shares are integral to many investor portfolios, whether that's individuals, superannuation funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or other institutional investors.
It's common to see the ASX mining share go through volatility as the market often reacts to changing commodity prices. However, director transactions can also cause worries if they sell.
There are a number of different reasons why directors can decide to sell – they may want to raise cash for a property purchase, they could need to pay for a large tax bill, they could want to increase share liquidity on the market, or perhaps there's a chance they're worried about the share price falling,
But, it can be a really positive sign if a director decides to buy shares on the market.
For owners of BHP shares, directors have given the market a somewhat mixed message.
Director buying
The ASX mining giant announced this week that director Ross McEwan had made a substantial investment into the ASX iron ore share.
According to the change of director's interest notice, McEwan decided to buy 10,000 BHP shares on the market on 31 October 2024.
The purchase price for this investment was A$42.65 per share, meaning he invested a total of $426,500 in the transaction.
McEwan didn't hold any shares before this transaction, so it was a sizeable first move.
This investment was made following a 7% fall in the BHP share price from 30 September 2024.
CEO sale
It's not normally a good sign to see the CEO of a business sell down their holding.
BHP announced that its CEO Mike Henry had both bought and sold BHP shares on 31 October 2024.
He acquired 86,072 BHP shares after the vesting of awards under the 2019 long-term incentive plan and also bought 44,335 shares following the vesting of awards under the cash and deferred plan.
Henry also sold 62,373 shares of the mining giant. According to the ASX iron ore share, Henry decided to sell these shares to "meet expected tax obligations" related to the transactions mentioned above regarding acquiring shares through the vesting of awards under the different plans.
So, while he did make a significant sale worth approximately $2.67 million (at a sale price of A$42.83 per share), his total holding increased by approximately 68,000 shares.
Following these transactions, Henry now owns 478,035 shares worth approximately $20.4 million. He also still has a maximum of 521,214 long-term incentive plan awards rights and 235,485 cash and deferred plan awards rights. In other words, he's still significantly invested in the mining stock and aligned with regular investors.
BHP share price snapshot
As shown on the chart below, the BHP share price has fallen by more than 15% since the start of this year.
